


A Fighting Man Cannot Forget

by mltrefry



Series: Run With You [7]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode AU: s08e11-12 Dark Water/Death in Heaven, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:28:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 18,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25136917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mltrefry/pseuds/mltrefry
Summary: “You’re going to see Clara again, twice. The first, it’ll be innocent. The second… she’s going to cross a line. She will lose someone she loves, and she’ll go too far.”They owed her nothing, but the Doctor and Rose still try and let Clara say goodbye to Danny. What they hadn't expected was to come across an old frenemy, or the army she created. But who was it really meant for, and why did she do it?
Relationships: Clara Oswin Oswald/Danny Pink, Twelfth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Series: Run With You [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/490927
Comments: 33
Kudos: 76





	1. Dark Water

**Author's Note:**

> So... this happened.

_“You’re going to see Clara again, twice.”_

The TARDIS phone rang, and Rose and the Doctor’s eyes met in confusion. He was under the console doing a quick bit of maintenance, and she was in one of the chairs by the bookshelves on the Mezzanine. 

_“The first, it’ll be innocent.”_

There was always worry when someone rang the TARDIS and not Rose. Most of their friends knew better than to call the former, and so it usually meant a crisis. UNIT ringing, or Torchwood. 

The Doctor got to his feet, and upon meeting Rose’s eye again, picked up the receiver and put it to his ear. “Clara!” He said with much put on enthusiasm, as often time streams didn’t always match up. He frowned. “Clara?” He repeated.

_“The second… she’s going to cross a line. She will lose someone she loves, and she’ll go too far.”_

Rose closed the book she had in her lap, shelving it without looking as she got up and went down the stairs to stand beside her husband.

“We’ve been busy, you?” A pause. “Well, you’re only human.” He said meeting Rose’s eye wearily. 

She’d told him what his future self said. And while she couldn’t remember the particulars of the Doctor, Rose did remember the words they spoke, the warning given about Clara. 

They just hadn’t expected it so soon. It seemed they barely got back from their travels with her. Something simple, as was told. They went for dinner on a distant planet, took her shopping, even brought her to see Jenny, Tim, and Olivia now that the newest member of the family had arrived. That had been no more than a week ago for them.

“So,” The Doctor continued his conversation. “What can we do for you, Clara? Of course, we’ll come get you. When are you?” He asked, putting the coordinates into the TARDIS controls as he was given them. “Right. Be there in a jiff.” He said as he put the receiver down.

He looked up at Rose again. “You don’t remember anything else?”

Rose shook her head. “Only that it’s an attempted betrayal. Not a successful one.”

“What do you think she wants?” He asked.

“I dunno,” Rose replied as he flipped the switch and sent them off. “I really don’t.”

They landed, though Rose wasn’t sure where, and since the Doctor didn’t make to exit neither did she. He reached down, grabbing a part he’d been working on, presumably one that wasn’t essential, and began tweaking it.

Rose pursed her lips, then turned back to the stairs to get her book.

She only made it with her foot on the bottom step before the doors were open. 

“Start her up!” Clara said with a smile as she entered, practically floating past the Doctor before she headed down to the lower deck.

“Where are we going?” He asked her, eyes toward the stairs where she disappeared.

“Away,” Clara replied far too casually.

“From?” He questioned.

“Just away.”Her voice carried, and the Doctor met Rose’s eyes.

 _“She’s hiding something,”_ He said in her mind.

“Forward or backward?” Rose called.

“Doesn’t matter,” Clara replied, her voice coming closer.

“Location helps.” The Doctor supplied.

“A volcano.” She said with a shrug before resuming her strange sort of dance about the levels of the console room.

“I’m sorry,” The Doctor frowned, turning to watch her. “I’ve never seen an active volcano. Do you know one?”

Rose snickered.

“Is this some sort of joke?” He asked.

“She doesn’t know I sent you to Pompeii for your time out, love,” Rose replied, stiffening as the TARDIS showed her images of Clara collecting TARDIS keys. Presumably by the way the Doctor stiffened, the information was shared with him as well.

“I’ve never seen lava,” Clara called.

“It’s rubbish.” The Doctor said, subtly flicking a switch and shutting down the power to the controls.

“Shush,” Rose said as she pretended to set coordinates but turning inactive knobs and dials, the TARDIS obliging their little charade by making noises.

“Do you still have those sleep patch things?” Clara called.

“You can’t have one.” The Doctor immediately replied.

“In the really old medicine chest on his desk,” Rose added.

“ _She’s going to use it on us.”_ He said through their bond.

“ _Not like they work,”_ Rose replied. 

They could hear the drawers move as she searched, and then stop, Clara likely having found what she was looking for. 

“ _No, we’re a bit more immune to them now.”_

Rose moved around the console, going to stand beside her husband, meeting his eye and knowing that this was likely it, what the warned attempted betrayal would be.

“So,” The Doctor said as they heard Clara’s footsteps behind them. “What’s so good about lav-”

He was cut off as Rose screamed at the unexpected, sharp pain piercing her side. 

In her thousands of years of life, Rose had lost count of the times she’d been stabbed. The worst, she came to realize, was when she wasn’t going to die from it. Fast healing was great and all, but she was still sore and tender for days instead of the minutes to an hour after a death.

As she wrapped her hand around the handle of whatever was sticking out of her, which turned out to be a rather large pair of scissors, she looked up through narrowed, rage and pain-filled eyes to see the Doctor maneuver Clara’s hand up and off his neck, a sleep patch adhered to her hand as her eyes lost focus.

She stood still, the patch’s effects slowly taking over.

“Did she just try to kill me?” Rose grit out, yanking the scissors out and tossing the bloodied things aside. 

“She did.” The Doctor said coldly, moving around to the other side of Rose and looking at the wound. “It’s already closing up.” He said. 

“What the hell is going on?” She asked. “Why would she do this? What is her-”

“We won’t know until her dream state is formed enough that she thinks it's real.” He replied, taking out his sonic and flicking to the setting to help speed along the stab wound’s healing. The wound now close but still tender and raw, the Doctor looked at her with a grin. “Play dead.”

“Excuse me?” Rose demanded, eyebrows shooting upward.

“She’s going to believe she killed you, play dead.”

Rose grumbled as she laid down on the TARDIS floor, at least making herself comfortable and watching as the Doctor did the same, closing his eyes.

After almost a minute, Clara blinked, reached in her pocket, and took out the TARDIS keys, turning to face the Doctor as she held them in palm out to be seen. A few beats after that, the Doctor slowly got up as if just waking.

“Clara?” He asked, sounding confused.

“It’s on your neck,” She said simply, and he felt about his neck while looking over at Rose.

“What did you-”

“She’ll come back. She always does.” Clara said without feeling. “You asked me ‘what’s so good about lava.”

“You stabbed my wife!” He said heatedly.

“And she will survive,” Clara replied, her voice staying level. “But a TARDIS key? You said lava was the only thing that would destroy it, that’s what is so good about it. And I have all seven, from all your hiding places and from around Rose’s neck.”

Rose could feel the weight of her TARDIS key still there, so assumed that must have been one of the bits Clara believed happened. 

“Clara,” The Doctor said as she lifted an invisible key from her hand, showing it to him. “Don’t. Those are very, very-”

She tossed the invisible key off to the side, and Rose’s eyes grew wider in time with the Doctor’s.

“Do I have your attention?” Clara asked. 

“Yes,” The Doctor said simply.

“Good.” 

“No, not good Clara.”

“Danny Pink.”

The Doctor blinked. “Yeah?”

“Is dead.”

“ _Oh,”_ Rose said to him, groaning and slowly getting up. The Doctor glanced at her, then turned to Clara.

“And?” He asked.

“Seriously?” Clara scoffed, the first sign of emotion in her voice since she began her imaginary quest to destroy TARDIS keys, a bit of anger seeping out.

“And?” He asked again, a bit more angrily.

“And fix it,” Clara said.

“He can’t.” Rose groaned.

“He can,” Clara said firmly. “I’ve seen him change things, he can change what happens.”

“He can’t,” Rose replied.

“He can!” Clara screamed.

“No.” The Doctor said in a way that should have been the end of it.

But Clara picked up a key, a real one this time, and tossed it over her shoulder on the console room floor. 

They both stared at her in shock.

“ _All this over PE?_ ”

“ _She’s lost someone, someone she loves.”_ Rose reminded him as Clara spoke.

“Five left,” Clara said as she picked one up and held it out. “Every time you say no to me, I will throw another key down there, do we understand each other?”

“I understand you, let’s not get carried away.” The Doctor said calmly.

“Time can be rewritten,” Clara stated.

“Minor things,” Rose said as she moved to stand with her husband, clutching her side and playing up the agony a bit. 

“Not minor things. Big things.” Clara said with certainty. 

“Big things that don’t change the events that brought you here.” The Doctor growled back. “It’s a paradox loop. If I bring back Danny, you’ll have never come here, stabbing Rose, threatening us, the timeline disintegrates. _Your_ timeline disintegrates.”

“Did you just say no?” Clara questioned with an edge of disbelief.

“Yes I did, throw away the key,” the Doctor said in a far calmer voice as he gestured for her to give the key a toss. He inched toward Rose, grabbing her waist and pressing her gently to his side as if he needed to help keep her steady. 

Rose played up the wince of pain that shot through her as her still healing wound brushed against the Doctor, and he sent through a quick apology through the bond as Clara spoke.

“I have seen you change time, I have seen you break any rule you want.” She protested.

“Right, yeah, he just goes around and changes things willy-nilly,” Rose said as she straightened up a bit. “Might as well toss it, you’ll never get the answer you want.”

Clara’s nose wrinkle in fury. “He made you.” She said bitterly.

“No,” Rose grit her teeth, moving closer to Clara, barely restraining herself from snarling. “ _I_ made me. _I_ did this. _I_ am the one who broke more laws of time than he has since I’ve been on board. I have created an immortal out of one of my best mates, I tied myself to the Doctor, and yeah, even brought back the dead once because I _could_. You come into my home, you stab me almost literally in the back when I have been a friend to you when we both have, and you start making demands. You threaten us.” She scoffed. “Probably won’t even follow through, will you?”

Clara stared her down. “I know what you’re doing.” She said. “You’re trying to take control, both of you.”

“We are in control, the Doctor said as he came beside Rose again. “Throw away the key.”

Clara smiled. “You know, for all your long lives, when it comes to taking control, you two really are out of your depth.” She threw the handful of keys off to the side, the metal making a racket that should have snapped her out of it, but didn’t. Clara remained still, holding that one key up.

“One last chance,” Clara said. “And I don’t care about the rules, I don’t give a damn about paradoxes. Save Danny. Bring him back or I swear you will never step inside your TARDIS again.”

“ _She does realize that we have 2 daughters with keys, and a good number of friends who used to travel with us we could get one from, yeah?”_

“ _She thinks we’re inside a volcano,_ ” The Doctor reminded her.

 _“We have a daughter with a TARDIS. And another with a vortex manipulator. Hell, we’re on Earth in her mind, we could have bloody UNIT airdrop us a spare from Mickey or Martha or someone_.”

The Doctor might have smirked on that one, causing Clara’s gaze to narrow on them.

“I’m serious.” She said.

“I know.” The Doctor said calmly. “And it’s still a no.”

“Do it.”

“No.” He repeated.

“Say it again, so I know you mean it.”

“No,” He said sharply.

“I’m not kidding!”

“Neither am I.”

“I will do it!”

“So do it,” Rose said simply. 

Clara looked ready to scream, instead, she threw the key.

She watched in horror at whatever scene played out in her mind, her hand coming shakily to her mouth as she collapsed on her knees. “Oh,” She gasped out, her voice breaking. “I’d say I’m sorry but I’d do it again.” She sobbed.

 _“She was willing to kill me, betray us, for him,”_ Rose said through the bond, looking at her husband. 

“ _Love makes everyone crazy,”_ He replied. “ _We can’t bring him back._ ”

“ _No, we can’t.”_ Rose agreed. “ _And while I want to say, maybe let her say goodbye-_ ”

“ _You think she’ll do what you did with your dad in your youth.”_ He understood even before Rose nodded.

“What are you doing?” Clara gasped out. “Why are you standing there? Do you not understand what I’ve just done?” She asked, gesturing to who knew what, because Rose couldn’t see what Clara did, and she doubted the Doctor did, either. 

The Doctor turned to Clara. “Look in your hand.”

“There’s nothing in my hand,” Clara said as she got to her feet, her bravado leaving her, all the exhaustion grief seemed to crash down on her at once. “The keys, they’re gone, they’re down there, they’ve gone.”

“Clara, ‘s not real,” Rose said with a sigh. “Look at your hand.”

As Clara looked at her hand, the Doctor sighed. “We had a forewarning. Our own sort of paradox loop.” He explained as Clara peeled off the patch. Rose went about, picking up the keys Clara had tossed about. “We allowed the scenario to play out.”

“I stabbed Rose, I stabbed her for real.”

“Yeah,” He said as Rose finished collecting the keys, the TARDIS opening a little compartment on the console that was never there before for her to drop them in. She turned to look at Clara as the Doctor took out his screwdriver, thumbing through the settings.

“She’d have stopped me.”

“Probably,” he said as he started to scan Clara.

“I love him.” She said, utterly rung out, practically unaware that the Doctor was circling her. 

“Yes,” He said as he finished the scan and looked at the results. “You’re quite the mess of chemicals, aren’t you. Your hCG hormones are quite high.” He said, meeting Rose’s eye from the other side of Clara.

Rose’s heart fell.

“I was tellin’ ‘im,” Clara said. “He doesn’t even know, I didn’t… I didn’t even get to it.”

“ _We can’t risk it._ ” Rose said, sensing what the Doctor was feeling, how much he wanted to help. “ _She’ll do worse than me.”_

“ _Maybe we can find a way to let her say goodbye_.”

 _“Not possible.”_ Rose frowned.

“ _We could try._ ” He said, and Rose caught a glimpse of his mind through their bond. The image of Jenny cradling newborn Olivia, of Tim looking so damn happy and in love with his little girl.

And that Clara had witnessed that exact scene. Maybe she had already known she was pregnant. Maybe she didn’t, but Rose could imagine their companion had probably remembered that moment when she’d discovered that she was going to be a mum herself.

“So what happens now?” Clara asked. “Us… what happens?” 

“You betrayed us.” He said. “You stabbed Rose, tried to kill her so you could subdue me, and then tried to take away our home. I should tell you to go to hell, but I think a large part of you is already there.” He moved to the console, turning the power to the controls back on, but leaving off the nav-com. He then moved to the telepathic interface. “You remember this?” He asked Clara.

She nodded numbly. “We umm… we ended up all over Danny’s time stream.”

“Because you and he are linked. Your timestreams are intertwined,” He said, a pointed glance at her abdomen. “We can’t bring him back, but this might let you call him before he dies. Call him before it's too late and tell him all about the little one you’re growing.”

“It’s your chance to say goodbye.” Rose offered Clara, looking over at her as Clara's hands hovered over the strange-looking gel matrix. “Suppose we owe you that much, given some of the misadventures you’ve been on.” 

Clara smiled weakly. “I’m sorry.” She said as the Doctor took her wrists and guided her hands toward the gel. “Truly sorry for what I did to you.”

Rose wasn’t sure she completely believed it, but she let it go, nodding once as the Doctor sunk Clara’s hands into the interface.

“Think about Danny.” He instructed. “Think about the man you lost. Let it hurt, let it burn. But don’t bleat. Don’t ask why, ask where. Where is there a chance for you to speak to him again? Where, and when.”

Rose felt the TARDIS startle before the engines started to go, followed by the sheer panic of both the time ship and her spouse as they were suddenly sent traveling to parts unknown.

“Thought this was supposed to be a call.” She asked as she grabbed onto the edge of the console.

“It was.” The Doctor replied. “But apparently Danny Pink is somewhere the TARDIS can go.”

When the TARDIS landed, there was a feeling of trepidation, like the Old Girl was very wary about being where they were.

The Doctor frowned. 

_“Do you hear a buzzing?”_ He asked through the bond.

Rose strained, then shook her head.

“Where are we?” Clara asked nervously. 

“We’re somewhere where we can reach Danny.” The Doctor said.

“Do you think he’s here?” Clara asked, eyes wide and hopeful as she looked between Rose and the Doctor.

Rose shook her head. “He’s gone.” She said, gentle but firm. “He’s not gonna be on the other side of those doors, we weren’t even supposed to move.’

“So why are we here?” Clara asked.

“Because this is where your timelines intersect.” The Doctor said as he moved to the stairs, his footsteps echoing as he headed below. “You need to be skeptical, clever, critical.” He called from below, his voice moving around. “Whatever is out there, you must be weary.” He came up the other stairs, a torch in his hand, which he gave to Clara, holding her gaze. “And understand this: if we walk out those doors, and it’s the day Danny dies, you will be watched. You will be monitored. And if it looks for a moment like you’re going to do something that will stop him dying, Rose or I will stop you. Do you understand?”

Clara bit her lip but nodded.

“Good.” He said as he tightened his grip on his sonic. “Let’s go.” He said as he ventured to the doors, opening them slowly to a room in pitch black.

Rose got her own sonic out, going to the torch setting and shining it about the room along with the Doctor and Clara. Her light caught on a stone that had a strange circle with a smaller circle next to it that looked familiar in a way that made her stomach churn, but the reason why was just out of her mind’s reach. Trying to think on it too long gave her a headache, so she looked up, frowning at the various tanks around the room, going as high as the ceiling.

“Bloody bizarre, that.” She said.

“Are they fish tanks?” Clara asked.

The Doctor looked at her, face revealing none of the confusion inside his mind that Rose could sense as plainly as her own. 

“In a mausoleum?” He countered, turning toward the stairs and heading up them, Clara following. Rose lingered, her protective instincts beginning the chafe, not quite fully coming to the surface but buzzing under her skin.

“ _Different sort of buzzing_ ,” The Doctor said as he and Clara knelt at something that looked like a monument. 

When they shone their light at it, the same pair of circles were etched in it. And just like the smaller stone, the words _Rest in Peace_ were engraved in the circle, with the addition of _We Promise_ beneath it.

“Same thing down there.” Rose gestured to the black marble that had been near the TARDIS as she slowly climbed the stairs.

“What does it mean?” Clara asked.

“It means those are definitely not fish tanks.” He said with a touch of worry, a hint of excitement. 

He waited for Rose to be at his side again before taking her hand, guiding her toward the stairs on the right, and running up them. They could hear Clara following close behind, but he didn’t slow down in the slightest.

Once on that upper level, the light from the tanks made the torches almost pointless. Rose and the Doctor pocketed the screwdrivers, but Clara kept her torch handy.

Rounding the corner, getting a full view of the tank contents, made Rose grip her husband’s hand, squeezing it in shock.

“What the hell?” She asked, frowning at the skeleton sitting in a chair, posed as if it were simply relaxing, waiting for a cuppa to be brought over.

Clara stared. “Why?”

“I don’t know.” The Doctor said voice baffled and gruff. He turned, looking about, seeing the same thing Rose did: that those tanks from floor to ceiling all had one, singular person inside them. 

“More money than brains when alive?” Rose wagered as they began to move down the hall. When Clara paused, looking at Rose over her shoulder, she shrugged. “My mum woulda thought that. Probably were told the water would… preserve them or somethin’ so they could be revived. Or, they just thought it was a bit nifty.”

“Pays to die rich,” The Doctor agreed, placing a hand on the glass of one tank and peering inside. 

“Oh… god, am I going to find Danny now?” Clara asked, a slight panic creeping into her voice. “Is that why the TARDIS brought us here? I don’t want to see him like that.”

“You won’t,” Rose assured, even though it wasn’t exactly something she _could_. She reached out a hand to comfort Clara, then felt the pull in her side from her recently given stab wound. Lowering her arm, she licked her lips as the Doctor stopped in front of another tank, inspecting the name. “Danny… he was a soldier, yeah? Don’t think they’d put soldiers somewhere like this. Feels a bit disrespectful.”

“Good point.” The Doctor frowned. “Tombs with windows, who wants to watch their loved ones rot?”

“There are some fairly morbid people out there, Doctor.” Rose reminded him. “Can think of a collection of heads in jars, for a start.” She said as he looked around the room.

“But those heads are still living, love. This is different. Why would anyone go to so much trouble just to keep watch on the dead?” He looked around, then found a podium to the right, nestled in a corner across from a shadowed corridor. Rose approached much slower than Clara, who practically ran to the Doctor’s side as he opened a book on the podium.

Rose, however, stared at the shadow.

She could feel it. She could feel something there, something heightening her desire to take the Doctor and shove him behind her, to protect him and keep them alive. Something grated on her in a way she hadn’t felt in decades, possibly centuries.

She was distracted, though, by her husband making a tossing motion toward the dark, an image of a cube floating only an arm's length from him. He touched it as she got closer to him, and the cube changed to an outline of that same, odd circle symbol with _3W_ inside it.

“3W,” A soft, feminine, Scottish voice said, the symbol disappearing, and words taking its place, the voice moving along with it like the building had subtitles. “Death is not an end. But we can help with that”

The Doctor narrowed his eyes, glancing at Rose.

“Don’t think I’d have done this.” She murmured as the voice continued along with the scrolling words.

“Ever since 3W encountered the truth about the death experience, ‘we’ve been working hard to find a better life for the deceased. At 3W, afterlife means aftercare.”

“Bit strange,” Clara said as the words disappeared, changing back to the logo from the start.

“Very. Why have the scrolling and a voice?”He asked, eyes darting just past where the words were. “Is it difficult?”

“You sense it too?” Rose asked.

“I do, something’s there, reading the words back to front.” He said to her, then turned back to the shadows. Rose noted them just as she was sure the Doctor had: a pair of beautiful blue eyes that bore mischief and excitement looking back at them. “Come on, we’ve come a long way.”

A woman Rose could only describe as a wicked version of Mary Poppins came through the image, breaking the pixels apart as she got right into the Doctor’s space.

“Hello,” She said, “I hope you’re well. How may I assist you with your death?”

“Well, there is... Er,” The Doctor stuttered.

“We aren’t in the immediate market,” Rose said with a customer service grin. “Just sorta having a look around, yeah?”

The woman looked at her, and Rose noted those eyes held something else she didn’t notice before: ancientness. 

“Please, take all the time you need.” The woman said, looking between her and the Doctor. “At 3W, you always have the rest of your life.”

“Oh, good.” The Doctor said nervously, grabbing Rose’s hand and holding tight. “That’s good to know.”

“What is 3W?” Rose asked with a frown, glancing around. “What’s it stand for exactly?”

“Apologies,” the woman said. “Clearly you have not received the official 3W greetings package.”

“Well, you know, it’s just-”

It took a lot to catch Rose off guard. She’d been around for over a thousand years and had been the Bad Wolf for most of her life. She’d blame age for the fact that the woman, who was clearly trying to act like some sort of bot but was far too lively to get it right, managed to catch her off guard. That the reason there were enough seconds that passed for the Doctor to be pushed against the nearest wall by this woman, and then snogged for a few seconds, was all down to the fact that it was not exactly a danger that came up on Rose’s radar.

She did act quickly, though, pulling the woman off her husband.

Before she had a chance to say anything, though, before she could protest, she was also pinned beside him and snogged as well.

The woman pulled off her with a smack, patting Rose’s cheek before grinning at the Doctor and backing up.

“What… was that?” Rose managed to ask after a second when her brain finally cataloged the events, finding no danger to what happened but finding it hard to settle the need to defend against this strangely strong woman. Perhaps she _was_ part bot.

“Welcome to the 3W institute.” She said with a friendly smile and a tilt of her head. She then looked at Clara. “You have also not received the official welcome package.”

Clara raised her hands and backed up a step, “Oh, I’m good, thanks.” She said, but the woman’s heart didn’t seem to be as in the attempt as it had been with the Doctor and Rose.

“Who are you?” The Doctor asked, frowning from where he remained back against the wall, an odd lilt to his tone.

“I am Missy.” The woman said with a smile.

“Hello, Missy. ‘M Rose,” She introduced herself, deciding to take the lead while her husband remained pressed against the wall, his body seemingly no longer functioning. “That man’s my husband, the Doctor. And that’s Clara.” She indicated, and Missy nodded along. Rose narrowed her eyes, looking Missy over, noting the flicker of a smirk on those red painted lips as she did. “Tell me, does Missy… stand for something?”

“Mobile Intelligent Systems Interface,” She rattled off, her eyes growing wider, her posture and movements stiffer. “I am a multi-function, interactive welcome droid.” She moved her head from person to person in a way that simulated robotics. “Helping you to help me to help you.”

“You’re very… realistic.” The Doctor commented, and Rose snorted.

“Tongues?” Clara asked, amused.

“Near there.” Rose replied as the Doctor said, “Shut up.”

“I am fully programmed with social interaction norms appropriate to a range of visitors,” Missy said as if the conversation around her hadn’t happened, rolling her r in range. “Please indicate if you’d like me to adjust my intimacy settings.”

“ _She’s having on with you,_ ” Rose said but realized a bit too late that the bond was very firmly sealed shut. She couldn’t even really feel the mental link with her husband, almost as if he were millennia and lightyears away from her all at once.

“Please do that,” The Doctor said to Missy, coming to Rose’s side. “Only just got back in my wife’s good graces.” 

Missy moved her head, looked away as if she was adjusting a setting, but Rose also noted the way she barely repressed a smile.

“I need to speak to whoever’s in charge.” The Doctor said, and Missy looked up at him.

“I am in charge.” She said, hands in front of her, holding the umbrella that really made the Mary Poppins look she bore.

“Well, who’s in charge of you?” The Doctor asked.

“I’m in charge of me,” Missy replied.

“Well, who repairs you? Who, who maintains you?” He asked, clearly getting worked up. Rose watched him and sent out a mental knock, but he ignored her. She glanced back at Missy, then to the Doctor, then to Missy again.

“I am programmed for self-repair,” Missy said. “I am maintained by my heart.” She darted forward again, grabbing the Doctor’s hand and putting it in the middle of her chest. She gasped, eyes wide as if she hadn’t placed those hands there on purpose, and Rose watched something in her husband’s face shift. 

Disbelief. Fear. Worry. Hope. He looked unmoved to anyone who hadn’t known him like she did, to anyone who hadn’t known multiple lifetimes of the man tucking away all those emotions so no one would see them but her.

“Is everything in order?” Missy asked coyly.

With only a slight tremor to his voice, the Doctor asked, “Who maintains your heart?”

“My heart is maintained by the Doctor,” Missy replied, an eye twitching like she wanted to wink.

“Doctor Who?” The Doctor asked.

After a beat, Missy craned her head back and shouted, “Doctor Chang!” 

She let go of the Doctor’s arm, stepping off to the side while the Doctor’s hand remained hovering in the air.

“What’s wrong?” Rose asked him softly as a young man, about Clara’s age, and with a friendly smile came down the hall.

“I dunno.” The Doctor confessed, looking at Rose. “I don’t know.” He said more firmly, then seemed to realize that this Doctor Chang was present and talking to Clara. 

“Is there a particular dead person you want to talk to?” Doctor Chang asked Clara, and she nodded.

“Yes, yes there is.”

“This way then.” He said, gesturing for the trio to follow him.

Rose took her husband's hand, and still, his walls were high and firm. She looked at him in confusion, and when he looked back he merely shook his head. 

Whatever was happening, she knew instantly he wouldn’t tell her. Not out loud where Missy, just down the hall and watching, could hear. And, she was beginning to worry, not through the bond where Missy might hear.

~DW~

They were led into a room that was fairly nondescript. It was bland, white walls, a couple of desks, no wall hangings. 

All in all, it could have been any office from almost any point in time, and yet there was something utterly sinister about the place. Maybe it was the tanks with the human skeletons about the room like they simply hadn’t been put in the mausoleum with the rest. Which, Rose figured, may just well be the case.

“Going to need to take a reading off you,” Doctor Chang said to Clara as she stood about in the room, dazed once more like the surrealness of what was happening was catching up to her.

“She’s pregnant,” Rose said. “Will the reading…?”

“No,” Doctor Chang assured as he crossed the room and flicked a switch with a smile.“It won’t affect the baby at all. It may even help if the person she wishes to contact is the baby’s father.”

“Yeah,” Clara said numbly. “It is.”

“How does the body keep its integrity?” The Doctor asked as he looked into one of the tanks, gesturing at the person inside it. “Why isn’t it just a bunch of bones floating about?”

Chang beamed. “Each body is encased in a support exoskeleton.”

“Sorry, a what?” Rose smirked, glancing at her husband who continued to look around the office, pacing about like a caged animal.

“A support exoskeleton,” Chang repeated, gesturing excitedly, regaining her attention. “We put the body inside after death, and then put them inside the tanks.”

“So, it’s invisible?” Clara asked.

“It’s only invisible in the water,” Chang explained. “There’s a specially engineered refraction index in the fluid so we can see the tank resident unimpeded by the support mechanisms.”

“So,” the Doctor said as he came up beside Rose. “Each skeleton is inside something?”

“Yes.” Chang nodded. “It’s quite amazing.”

“X-ray water, now that’s amazing,” Clara said, perking up a bit, a little life coming through.

“It’s so cool.” Chang agreed, then turned to one of the desks, gesturing at a cylinder of the same, blue-tinted fluid that appeared to be in the tanks sitting on a little cart beside it. “Look at this, we call it dark water.” He said, then raised his left hand, showing them his watch, then slowly stuck his arm into the cylinder. Not only did the watch seem to vanish, but so did the sleeves of his clothes, showing his arm as though it were bare. “Only organic matter can be seen through it.” He said before he withdrew his hand, grabbing a towel off the lower shelf off the cart. “I keep saying they should use this stuff in swimming pools.”

“Why?” The Doctor asked.

“Think about it,” Chang said as he dried off.

“I am thinking about it.” The Doctor replied. “Why?”

“I can think of enough reasons not to,” Rose said with a curl of her lip. “Specially where I grew up. Get enough dirty ol’ men leering at you when they can’t see through your clothes.”

“I didn’t realize you noticed.” The Doctor quipped, and Rose gaped at him over her shoulder.

He shrugged. “I’m old. May have leered a little.” He said unapologetically.

“Enough of that,” Clara waved them off, inching closer to the doctor. “3W, what kind of name is that? What does it mean?” 

“Well, you know, don’t you?” He replied, finishing with the towel and chucking it back on the cart before leaning on the desk. “You’re here on business or they wouldn’t have let you in.” He slowly started to frown in worry. “Sorry, should have checked. W-who are you?” 

“I thought that you would never ask.” The Doctor sprang into action, withdrawing his psychic paper from inside his jacket and moving around the desk to hand it over the Chang. “Sort out your security protocols, they’re a disgrace.”

Chang took the billfold and looked at it, his lip curling anxiously. “Another government inspection. So soon?” 

“Got to keep you lot on your toes,” Rose said as she took the psychic paper out of the man’s hand and glanced at it. 

Nothing. The paper showed her nothing because the Doctor wanted her to see absolutely nothing from his mind. She quickly closed it and handed it back to the Doctor without looking at him, giving Chang a gentle smile. “Walk us through it like we’re a bunch of pudding brains, yeah? We just wanna make sure you know what you’re supposed to. So, like our associate said, what’s 3W stand for?”

Chang swallowed. “Well, it stands for the three words.” He hesitated. “Are you… are you sure… cause, people who don’t know, when they hear about this, they can freak out.”

“We’re not going to freak out.” The Doctor assured, rolling his Rs instead of his eyes like Rose suspected he really wanted to.

Chang glanced at Clara. “If you’ve had a recent loss, this might be… disturbing.”

“Tougher than she looks,” Rose said, glancing at Clara to see her nod.

Chang sighed, resigned, clearly not certain he should continue but was going to anyway. “You know how people are scared of dying? Like, everybody?” He said as he went over to the wall, pushing a few buttons, causing a completely clear monitor to turn in such a way that they could all see it if they sat at the desk together. The 3W logo came up on the screen.

“Of course,” The Doctor said. “It’s the most fundamental fear in the universe.”

Chang nodded ever so slightly. “They’d be a lot more scared if they knew what it was really like.” He gestured for them to take a seat, and they did, Clara sitting closest to the monitor and Change while the Doctor sat in the middle, arms folded, looking far too bored and skeptical for his own good.

Rose sat in the last chair, leaning forward on the desk, hands folded, mirroring Chang’s posture but with a lot less nerves.

“White noise off the telly,” he began. “We’ve all heard it. A few years ago, Doctor Skarosa, our founder, did something unexpected. He played that noise through a translation matrix of his own devising. This is what he heard.” He leaned over and pushed some sort of button Rose couldn’t see on the base of the monitor.

There was a hum, quiet, like voices in a crowded room. People were talking, but it wasn’t really possible to hear what any of them were saying.

“Okay, people, voices,” Clara said as the Doctor leaned forward, putting his hands on the table by Rose’s.

“So what?” He asked Chang, utterly unimpressed.

“Over time, Doctor Skarosa became convinced these were the voices of the recently departed. He believed it was a telepathic communication from the dead.” Chang explained.

“Sorry, hold on.” Rose cut in, lifting her hand. “Been around a while, me. Even a bit familiar with telepathic things. ‘S not being heard with our mind, that has a different feel. This is with our ears. Best case scenario, it's voices heard on a different frequency. Like, voices a second out of time, or a dimension over.”

“Have I ever told you how sexy you are?” The Doctor asked with a smirk.

“Not the place for it, love,” Rose smirked back.

“Would you two shut up?” Clara said, her focus entirely on the man across the desk. “Why would he say that? Why would Skarosa think that white noise was communication from the dead?”

“He was able to isolate some of the voices,” Chang replied. 

“Of course he would.” The Doctor said, tossing a hand about as if to brush off the reasoning. “It’s through his own translation matrix. It could say or be whoever he wanted.”

“I don’t think anyone would want to hear what comes through.” Chang defended.

“Yeah, why’s that?” The Doctor challenged.

“Because they change your life, and not for the better.” When the Doctor tilted his head, clearly waiting for more, Chang swallowed. His hand moved for the monitor again, then stopped. “These are the three words which caused Doctor Skarosa to set up institutes like this one, all over the world: to protect the dead. If you’d rather no hear these words, there’s still time-”

“Can you just hurry up, please, or I’ll hit you with my show?” The Doctor interrupted, rubbing at his brow with one finger, and Rose bit down a grin as she realized it was the middle one.

With great hesitation, Chang pushed the button on the monitor.

“Don’t cremate me.” A voice pleaded. “Don’t cremate me!”

As they listened to the voice repeat the words over and over, Chang began to talk.

“There is one, simple, horrible possibility that has never occurred to anyone throughout human history: the dead remain conscious. The dead are fully aware of everything that is happening to them.”

It was a long few seconds of heavy silence with the exception of the voice on repeat before Rose snickered. And when she started, she caught her husband’s amused glint, and positively lost it. She threw her head back and laughed, listening to her husband’s throaty chuckles along with her own. She laughed even as her barely healed stab wound hurt. After a moment, when she realized Clara and Chang were looking at them with horror, she managed to calm herself down.

“Sorry, sorry, just… that’s the biggest load of toss I have _ever_ heard.”

“Rose!” Clara snapped.

Clara, I’ve died… hundred of times. I’ve died, blimey, I’ve lost count. I’ve been blown up, been mauled, had the life literally sucked out of me-”

“And you. Feel. Pain.” Clara pounded at the desktop.

“After I come back.” Rose reminded her. “When I’m gone, I’m… gone. I don’t know anything. I’m aware of nothing. The Doctor has literally moved me from one location to another and I never know. I don’t feel anything. I’m not aware.”

“Sorry,” Chang frowned. “You’ve… died?”

“Yeah,” Rose said flatly. “Over and over, got a lot of first-hand experience, me.”

Chang frowned deeper. “Then, how is it you’re not-”

“It’s all fake.” The Doctor said as he got to his feet. “Fakery fake, all of it. It’s a con, it’s a racket.” 

Clara stood as well, looking ready to chase after the Doctor, probably believing in Chang’s protests, when the beeping stopped her and the Doctor both.

“What’s that beeping?”Clara asked Chang desperately.

“Never mind about beeping,” the Doctor said, stopping and turning on his heel. “Who cares about beeping? The dead are dead. They’re not talking to you out of your television sets-”

“Well,” Rose shrugged as Chang began to fiddle with something on the desk that looked like a webcam, the screen on the monitor changing to look like it was loading something. 

“They weren’t dead.” He pointed at her firmly. “Just lost their faces. I fixed that, everything went back to normal. This, this can’t be fixed. Those poor souls down there in these tanks,” he said, moving to stand by the nearest one and rapping his knuckles gently on the glass before shrugging. “I’m sorry, but they’re just dead, and they’re not coming back.”

“Clara?” Danny’s voice came from the vicinity of the monitor, and everyone in the room immediately froze. “Clara? Clara, are you there?”

“Danny!” Clara gasped, shifting to be as close to the monitor as she could be. “I can hear you. Is that you? Oh please, say it’s you.”

“That’s-” Danny’s voice faded out, and Clara looked to Chang with wide, doe eyes. 

“Just lost the signal,” Chang said calmly. “But I can track it back, I’m pretty sure.”

“I don’t understand, what’s happening?” Clara asked, hopeful, and panicky all once.

“We’ve been scanning you telepathically since you came in. You said you wanted to speak to someone who's passed, and we’ve found you a match in the Nethersphere.”

“This isn’t possible,” The Doctor said from directly behind Rose, his hands coming up and resting on her shoulders, kneading away as if she was the one wound tight and blocked off. “The dead don’t come back.”

“What about Jack?” Clara asked. “And Rose? What about you?”

“Jack is a fixed point. Rose will only die when I do, and in a way, I _do_ die. When I change, I’m both the same man and an entirely new one. I can never go back to how I was before, otherwise, I’m sure I’d have made myself stay gobby in a tight suit.”

Rose rolled her eyes, refraining from pointing out that he hadn’t exactly lost any level of vanity since then, that was simply the one where the memory of it stuck.

“But it was him, that was his voice.” Clara protested.

“They’ve been scanning you, reading your brain.” Rose reminded her gently. “Could’ve picked up on the memory, yeah? Used that voice?

“Clara, can you hear me?” Danny’s voice came back.

“Yes!” She cried out. “Danny, I can hear you, can you hear me?” 

“Yeah, yeah I can hear you.”

“Clara,” He half cried. “Oh god, Clara.”

“What do I do?” Clara asked them, eyes prickling with tears.

“Who are you talking to?” Danny asked as the Doctor patted Rose's shoulder and headed for the doors.

“Be skeptical,” He said to Clara as Rose got out of her chair. “Question him, ask him things only he’d know the answer to. Be sure.” He then looked at Chang. “You, with us.” 

“Where are you going?” Clara asked.

“To check out those tanks. There’s something I’m missing.” The Doctor said as he headed for the doors.

“Clara?” Danny’s voice came through.

Rose met her husband’s eye, and waved him on, before turning to Clara.

“Just remember what the Doctor said, yeah?” She said, putting a reassuring hand on Clara’s shoulder. “And if this is all hogwash… least you get closure somehow.” She left Clara to talk to what might be Danny, going to her husband’s side as Chang spoke quickly to Clara.

“Who would harvest dead bodies?” The Doctor asked Rose before heading through the sliding doors. “I feel like I’m missing something.”

“The Gelth,” Rose suggested. “Speaking from the ‘other side’, wants dead bodies.”

“But they wanted those bodies because they released gases they could live in.” He pointed out as they moved into the hall, pausing for Chang to catch up. “These bodies are in tanks, rotted, contained in something.”

The three of them turned the corner and noticed something very different than before.

“They supposed to be bubbling?” Rose asked as Chang’s eyes widened.

“Never mind the bubbling, the dead are standing.” The Doctor pointed out as he moved down the hall, his voice deepening with anger and panic.

“The tanks are activating!” Chang exclaimed as Rose followed the Doctor, the feeling of fight that had dulled over their visit heightening once more. “They’re not supposed to do that.” 

“Now, now children,” Missy said, and Rose spun around, keeping an arm slung out to block the Doctor from her even as Missy’s attention was focused on Chang who was back where they came in. “Naughty, naughty,” Missy added coyly, lifting her hand and pointing something first at Rose and the Doctor, then to Chang before lowering her arm.

“Doctor Chang,” The Doctor said, grabbing Rose’s outstretched arm and pulling her with him as he went closer to Missy. Rose ground her feet in, keeping him back, making sure there was distance still between them, and enough that she could protect him if need be. “Your welcome droid has developed a fault.”

Chang looked utterly confused as Missy smirked. 

“That’s not a droid… that’s my boss.” He replied, his brow wrinkling a little.

“You know, I might have been guilty of just a teensy little fibette,” Missy said to the Doctor in a way that might have flirty. She then turned back to Chang, and lifted her arm again, for a moment, once more pointing something at him. She then lowered her arm and put her hands on her hips. “Doctor Chang, I really liked working with you. I’ve enjoyed every day of it.”

Chang smiled for a brief moment before he became confused. “I’m sorry?”

“You know, I’ve even got a little photograph of you looking so sweet.” She cooed, glancing back at the Doctor and Rose, “I’m always going to keep it. Always.” She swore as if it would mean something to them.

There was a pause before Chang asked, “Are you going to kill me?”

“Now come on,” Missy chided. “Let’s not dwell on horrid things. This is going to be our last conversation, and I’m the one who’s going to have to live with that.” She said with faux grief.

Rose felt the Doctor squeeze her arm when she flinched, ready to move to intervene. She looked up at him but was distracted by the draining water of the tank.

Chang and Missy continued to converse, and Rose was vaguely aware that it was likely the man was about to be murdered, but Rose was starting to see there were far worse things about to happen to the world as a whole.

“Can’t be.” Rose shook her head, wanting desperately to be in denial, but knowing without a doubt that that was what was inside. She knew those helmets, even just by the tops of them, as they tended to haunt her nightmares.

Over her very long life, Rose hadn’t had many encounters with the cybermen without another nefarious creature looming about. There had been the incident with the Cyberplanner and Porridge, but they hadn’t been on Earth. 

“There are… hundreds, thousands of cybermen,” Rose said, looking at the Doctor and meeting his terrified gaze with her own.

After a heartbeat he zoomed past her to Missy, imploring her. “We’ve got to stop them getting out.” He said to her, hands out in supplication.

Missy merely smirked. “Do you see that?” She asked, pointing to something Rose couldn’t see. She moved to stand beside her husband, narrowing her eyes at an inconspicuous and yet menacing little ball hovering just out of sight. “It’s the Nethersphere. You know, it’s ever so funny, the people that live inside that think they’ve gone to heaven.”

“Danny.” Rose realized. “So he’s… he’s actually…”

“Yeah,” The Doctor said nervously. “He is because that’s a matrix data-slice. A Gallifreyan hard drive.” He met Rose’s eye. “Time Lord technology.”

“Oh,” Rose said, and then as she looked at Missy who grinned back at her. “You told me about the matrix once,” Rose murmured, never taking her eyes off the woman in front of them.

“Where a Time Lord’s mind goes after death.” He confirmed her memory, though she doubted he took his eyes off Missy either.

“Imagine using it to upload dying _human_ minds,” Missy said as she looked in awe at the Nethersphere. “Edit them. Rearrange them, Get rid of all those boring emotions. Ready to be re-downloaded. Meanwhile, you upgrade the bodies.” She turned back to them but focused on the Doctor. “Upload the mind, upgrade the body. Cybermen from cyberspace, now why has no one ever thought of that before?”

“Who are you?” The Doctor asked.

“You know who I am, I told you,” Missy said simply, then gasped, placing her hand on her chest, right in the middle. “You felt it, surely you did.”

“Two hearts,” The Doctor confirmed, and Rose glared up at him.

“And both of them yours,” Missy said simply.

“You’re a Time Lord.” He said as Rose started to look for an exit.

“Time Lady, please, I’m old fashioned,” Missy said teasingly as Rose slowly guided the Doctor around her toward the lift and the set of doors at the end of the hallway.

“Which Time Lady?” The Doctor asked.

“The one you abandoned, Doctor.” She said as though it were obvious, and maybe to him it was, but Rose didn’t have time to ask. With one hand on her husband’s wrist, she reached into her pocket and withdrew her sonic, and thumbed the settings for the one that would unlock doors.

“The one you left for dead,” Missy went on, following them as they went but keeping a distance. “Didn’t you ever think I’d find my way back?”

“How!?” He asked, and Missy merely giggled. 

Rose hadn’t bothered with the lift, already figuring that Missy probably would have shut it down the moment the Cybermen were revealed. Instead, Rose pointed her sonic to the doors, pressed the button, and when she heard the locks click open she yanked the Doctor with her through them.

The sun, when it hit her eyes, was blinding and unexpected. The air, heavy with rain, hit her skin and cooled her down for a moment before she tensed again in confusion. Somewhere above and behind her, church bells chimed, and when she got her senses finally put together she’d realized she was near the heart of London.

“Oh dear, did the pair of you not realize where you were?” Missy asked as she strode out the cathedral doors, dropping an arm around Rose and the Doctor. 

There was the sound of metal, that eerie, mechanical whir that was unique to the cybermen coming from inside the cathedral behind them, and before those bots could merge, the Doctor was running, tearing through the streets, warning everyone to get back. To run. To do what he must have known they wouldn’t do.

It had been nearly ten years since Canary Wharf, and people always tended to forget the events of years past, of what they meant. Some, Rose knew, would hesitate at the sight of the cybermen. Some may even listen to the Doctor’s advice and run. But most, Rose knew, would linger. Would look and stare and wonder.

“You’re not helping him alert the masses? Raise the alarm?” Missy asked Rose, and she turned to look this woman in the eyes, desperately trying to see her daughter or granddaughter in them all while fearing she would. 

“You said he left you.” Rose countered. “Was this in the war?”

Missy smirked. “We’ve met before, too.” She countered as the Doctor returned to the square, looking around at the people staring at him like he was a loon, all while cybermen poured out of the building and down the stairs.

Much as Rose wanted answers, she felt compelled to stand with the Doctor and did so. Moving down the stairs, she looked at all the people doing exactly what she thought they might, all in those varying degrees she knew they would, and took her husband’s hand.

“We need to get them away.” He said firmly. “We need to get them as far away from here as possible. I don’t understand why they aren’t running.” And then to the crowd, he shouted. “Why aren’t any of you running!?”

“Stop shouting,” Missy said with fond exasperation as she came up beside the Doctor and ran a hand down his arm. “It’s too late. All the graves of planet Earth are about to give birth.”

“How?” Rose asked as Missy then moved to stand behind them, the Time Lady’s hand caressing their backs as she shifted. 

“Because I’m brilliant, my dear.” She said simply as if Rose had known the truth. “I’m very good at taking the dead of humankind and putting them to use.”

“Who are you?” The Doctor demanded quietly.

“You know who I am. I’m Missy.”

“Who’s Missy.” The Doctor asked as Missy circled around them to face them.

“Please,” She said, the fondness fading but the exasperation still there. “Try to keep up. Short for Mistress.”

“Mistress?” Rose frowned as something in the Doctor’s face shifted, his understanding all too plain.

Missy smiled like the Cheshire cat. “Well, I couldn’t very well keep calling myself the Master, now could I?”


	2. Death in Heaven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As was always the case, if it didn't deviate from the show, I didn't add it in here, so Clara is essentially MIA for a very large chunk of this.

“Look at them! My boys!” 

Missy spread her arms wide and did a slight turn in the middle of the square, gesturing to the Cybermen as they remained stationary.

Rose looked them over, reminded far too much of the blasted ghosts and how so many people thought they were harmless. As it was, none of the people in the square seemed alarmed.

“3W was international,” Rose said breathlessly, the implications chilling her to her core. All around them people were snapping pictures, acting as if this wasn’t another Canary Wharf in the making.

“Oh, she does pay attention doesn’t she?” Missy said as she floated to stand between them, the thing in her hand turning out to be a strange sort of communicator. She turned the screen toward them, showing Rose and the Doctor the pictures that had come in. “New York, Paris, Rome, Marrakesh. Brisbane, Glasgow, everywhere! Me and my boys, we’re going viral.” She said as she switched to what looked like a camera app, extending her arm and making a kissy face.

“Would you like me to take a picture?” A familiar voice asked, and Rose snapped her attention to one Petronella Osgood as she strode confidently toward them.

It was a balm to her nerves, seeing that beautiful, be-speckled woman smiling at them. Her clothes were reminiscent of the Doctor’s last body. At Missy’s scowl, Osgood shrugged. “Sorry, selfies are never as good are they? And you’re having a lovely moment. Hang on,” She reached out and took the communicator from Missy as if it were nothing.

When the Time Lady went to reach for it, Rose grabbed her arm and held hit back, smiling wide.

“Nice bow tie.” The Doctor said as calm as he could, though the relief was a bit too palatable.

“Bow ties are cool,” Osgood replied with a smile. “Big smiles, and… now!”

At Osgood’s word, every single person who had been cooing and fawning over the Cybermen suddenly had weapons. They came from backpacks, prams, pockets, and every single one was drawn on them. Or, rather, Missy, though admittedly it did raise Rose’s heckles a little.

More guards came pouring out of buildings, these ones more heavily armed and in tactical gear as well, also training their weapons on them, but many more focusing on the Cybermen.

When everything had settled again, Kate Stewart walked through the crowd with her hands in her behind her back, grinning broadly.

“Afternoon,” She greeted the Cyberman as she walked right up to them. “You’ve picked a lovely day for it. My, don’t you look shiny.” She glanced over at Rose, the Doctor, and Missy, eye falling on the Doctor. “Haircut?”

“Bit of a trim,” He replied as he stepped away from Missy and Rose, remaining a few paces behind Kate.

“Might want to do your roots. The woman, brunette, not blonde, she’s fine.” Kate ordered, and a couple of those tactical gear guards came and took hold of Missy for Rose. As Missy was backed away, Rose inched closer to the Doctor, watching Kate work. It was then she noted the destroyed and dissected Cyberman head in Kate’s hands.

“Kate Stewart. Divorcee, mother of two, keen gardener, outstanding bridge player. Also Chief Officer, Unified Intelligence Taskforce, who currently has you surrounded.” She said with a slight bounce on her toes.

“Human weaponry is not effective against Cyber technology.” The Cyberman nearest to Kate replied.

“Sorry, you left this behind on one of your previous attempts.” She said as she tossed the head on the ground for the Cybermen to see. She then backed up a few steps to stand on the opposite side of the Doctor from Rose. “So, now that I have your attention, welcome to the only planet in the universe where we get to say this: they’re on the payroll.”

Rose frowned and then sighed. “I never did properly quit, did I?”

“I wouldn’t have accepted your resignation even if you had.” Kate countered.

“Still earning a paycheck?” Rose asked, but Kate merely shushed her.

“Any questions?” She asked the Cybermen.

In perfect sync, all the Cybermen brought their right fist to the center of their chests and stomped their foot.

Rose yanked the Doctor behind her, forcing him back as he told others to back up as well, clearing space as the Cybermen straightened up before suddenly taking off into the sky.

Rose watched the sky with the rest and followed one of the Cybermen’s trails to the cathedral where they’d been before. One of the panels of the roof began to open, followed by another, looking almost like a flower blooming petal by petal.

“Oh my god, is that supposed to do that? Is that new.” Osgood asked.

“A sunroof on Saint Paul’s?” The Doctor asked. “Yes, I’d say that was new.”

“Be nice.” Rose chided as more Cybermen shot off into the sky from the newly opened roof.

“Hush, I’m trying to count.” The Doctor shot back.

“Eighty-seven, I think,” Osgood said, and when they looked at her she shrugged. “OCD.”

“Ninety-one,” Missy corrected, and then shrugged as well. “Queen of evil.”

“How could Saint Paul’s be full of ninety-one Cybermen and nobody noticed?” Kate asked the Doctor in confusion.

“Dimensional engineering. One space folded inside another. Bigger on the inside.” He said before looking over his shoulder at a gleeful Missy. “Easy if you’re a Time Lord.”

“Mostly deploying south, a smaller number east,” Osgood observed.

“Yep, but one straight up,” The Doctor said as one cyberman from the launch remained hovering over the cathedral.

“So, ninety-one isn’t a coincidence?” Osgood asked with the hope that she would be corrected. 

“Of course it isn’t, the Doctor said as he took Missy’s communicator from her, moving toward his former friend with it.

“Osgood?” Kate said, turning to her right-hand woman. “Ninety-one. Explain.”

“Ninety-one areas of significant population density in the British Isles.” She replied.

“Missy got one of her little 3W things in every major city,” Rose said to the UNIT ladies, their eyes widening. “So this is likely happening all over the world. Torchwood mucking about with the ghosts all over.” 

“Except this time they aren’t on their own.” The Doctor said like a curse as he glared at Missy.

“Sweet planet, this.” She said as if she’d never been there before. “Might just keep it.”

“One Cyberman per city, what could they hope to accomplish?” Kate asked them with a worried sort of frustration.

“Only takes one.” Rose reminded her. “Just one to try and convert everyone or-”

“Doctor!” Osgood got their attention, pointing up as the Cyberman that had been hovering suddenly exploded. 

“Did it just-?” Kate started.

“Cybermen don’t just blow themselves up for no good reason,” Missy said with satisfaction. “It’s pollinating. Falling like rain into the cracks of the Earth.”

“The graves are about to give birth.” Rose shook her head. “And you’ve done this before. You’ve used the dead or dying to make… things, your army.”

“Aw,” Missy cooed. “You remembered my babies. How sweet.” 

“Your ‘babies’ and I got intimately acquainted a few times,” Rose said as she squared her shoulders. “This is different, though.”

“It is,” Missy smirked. “The dead are coming home, all shiny and new. In twenty-four hours the human race as you know it will cease to exist.”

“Better looking this go, but pretty sure your clone trick won’t work again,” Rose smirked.

Missy seemed all the more delighted. “I really do see why he loves you.” 

Rose turned to look over her shoulder at her husband just as she saw someone raise a gun to the back of his head. 

In seconds, there were two shots, and two of those armed guards grabbing her by the arms as she lashed out, trying to get to the Doctor or the person stupid enough to pull the trigger on him. In a couple more, she felt a hazy sort of drugged feeling flowing into her mind though nothing had entered her bloodstream. She stilled watching her husband pull a small dart from his neck.

 _“Guard the graveyards_ ,” He warned through the bond.

She frowned, then looked to Kate as she got off a communicator device.

Kate met her eye. “Do we need to drug you, too, are you going to come willingly?”

The sky overhead crackled with lightning, thunder rumbling, the cloud in the sky where the Cyberman exploded growing wider and darker. Rose looked up at it, frowning. Guard the graveyards, he’d said. 

“He’d have gone if you asked nicely,” Rose said, then looked at her new-new-new-new husband, and frowned. “Maybe.”

“If he caught even a whiff of where he’s being taken, he wouldn’t step near it,” Kate said as she gestured with her head, and guards lifted an unconscious Doctor onto a stretcher that was wheeled over to them. “Tell me, how long have you two been married now?”

Rose frowned. “Celebrated a thousand years a couple months back for us, why?” She asked as she crossed her arms, momentarily distracted by Missy being wheeled past them.

Kate grinned. “How would your mother have felt if you told her you would one day be the First Lady of Planet Earth.”

Rose blinked. “Probably would have told me I was putting on airs and graces, and why didn’t I settle for Mickey.” She replied as she started to follow Kate to one of the cars. “Really? First Lady?”

Kate glanced at her over the shoulder. “We’d have put you up for President, but he’s got a bigger reputation.”

“Ah,” She conceded with a nod as she climbed in the back seat with Kate. “Probably for the best anyway, with this body. If it was the last one-”

“Perish the thought,” Kate said before the car took off to wherever they were headed.

~DW~

Inside the air bunker, Rose observed how her husband was now cuffed with his hands behind the stretcher currently propped up so he was in a standing position. She crossed her arms, tilting her head as she looked at him with pursed lips.

“Sure we can’t keep him like this?” She asked Kate over her shoulder, momentarily distracted by the TARDIS being loaded onto the plane. The Old Girl was only quietly grumbling in her humming way, understanding that this was likely far easier for them than if Rose had attempted to fly her there herself. 

“We’re going to need him conscious, I’m afraid,” Kate said, gesturing for one of those heavily armed UNIT soldiers to approach the Doctor. “We made that tranquilizer awhile ago in the case of needing to subdue a Time Lord. Then we made the antidote for moments like this.” She explained as the Doctor was shot once more.

His eyes immediately sprung open, and he jerked his arms. The Doctor met Rose’s eyes with a raised eyebrow. “This is new.”

“Not my idea,” Rose replied as another soldier moved to uncuff him. “Apparently you’ve got a reputation for being unreliable?”

“I’ve no idea why, if it weren’t for me this planet would have ended hundreds of times over.”

“Good to see your ego didn’t take a hit,” Rose smirked as the Doctor was released. “Take the bondage up with Kate,” Rose said, getting the attention of the head of UNIT as well as Osgood from where they were taking a moment to discuss something. 

“Your cooperation was to be ensured,” Kate said firmly. “There are protocols for an alien incursion on this scale.”

“Do you think your father would’ve done this?” The Doctor challenged as he rubbed his wrists.

“We both know he absolutely would,” Kate said as she directed them toward the airstairs leading to the massive jet that was parked in the hanger. 

“You got the TARDIS out,” he said as they moved.

“Yes, and Saint Paul’s locked down,” Kate added as they moved. “Rose informed me you had a companion with you, but the people we sent in said there was no sign of her.”

“She probably got out,” Rose assured, but the Doctor didn’t seem to be bothered either way.

He must have known she was frowning at his seeming lack of care, because he turned, looked at her over her shoulder, and said, “She stabbed you and had every intention of making it impossible for us to use the TARDIS again. Clara Oswald managed to flee Saint Paul’s.” He said with every confidence, and who was Rose to argue that. Still, as she and Kate got on to the plane, while the Doctor strode ahead, she stopped the blonde for a private word.

“She’s pregnant, and the baby’s father is likely now a Cyberman.” She explained to Kate in hushed tones, watching Kate’s eyebrows slowly climb. “Not saying what she did was right- or justified, even- but I’d feel a lot better if I knew she was safe.”

“I’ll make sure that people continue to watch for her,” Kate said, and Rose nodded, allowing the UNIT leader to bring her into the main cabin where the Doctor was fixing two cups of tea. 

“Where are we going, Cloudbase?” The Doctor asked as they walked in.

“You mean the Valiant?” Kate asked.

“Really hope that’s a no,” Rose interjected. “Given everything. Not to mention I don’t have the fondest memories of the Valiant.”

“Have you even been on the Valiant since…?” He asked pointedly.

“No, bowed out of that one other time.” She replied.

“And you won’t be this time,” Kate assured. “It’s too conspicuous, and we need his location concealed, not advertised.” She looked to the Doctor, “from now on, you’re a moving target.”

The Doctor nodded, then gestured to the portrait on the wall before beginning to add obscene amounts of sugar to one of the cups. “I see you’re bringing Daddy along, too. That’s very sweet.”

“That’s your dad?” Rose beamed, looking at the portrait of one of the Doctor’s best friends, one of the only ones he spoke the fondest about, but Rose had never been lucky enough to meet. “I could never quite picture ‘im, whenever the Doctor would tell me stories,” Rose said to Kate as the Doctor began to harass the man in military uniform, and Osgood to a lesser degree.

“I’ve said it before, but he’d have _loved_ to have met you,” Kate said as she made her way to a phone. “He’s met some others that the Doctor was very close to, as I’m sure you know, but the one he actually married?” Kate made a face that just affirmed her statement of how much her father would have wanted to encounter Rose. She then picked up the receiver, pressed a button, and said, “The President is on board.”

“Hang on,” The Doctor said as he absently handed Rose a cup of tea, focusing on Kate. “The President? We don’t want Americans bobbing around the place.” He said and Rose couldn’t help but grin. He whipped his head toward her. “What is it, what do you know?”

She smirked, taking a sip of the tea he made her. “She’s not talking about America, Doctor.” She said, grinning with her tongue peeking out the corner of her mouth. 

His eyes fell on that for a moment before he looked back at her with a frown.

“Then who?”

“The President of the Earth, sir.” The military man, whose name patch said Ahmed, corrected the Doctor’s assumptions.

The Doctor scowled. “There isn’t one?”

“Oh yes there is,” Rose smirked as she pulled out a chair at the big table in the center of the room and sat down, getting comfortable and watching her husband sit at the end of it as Kate explained.

“The incursion protocols have been agreed internationally. In the event of full-scale invasion, an Earth President is inducted immediately, with complete authority over every nation. There was only one practical candidate.”

The Doctor stared. 

“That’s your answer for everything, isn’t it? Vote for an idiot.” He said as he began to lift his cup to his lips.

“If you say so, Mister President,” Kate replied casually.

The Doctor froze with the cup to his lip, then looked to Rose. “Tell me you didn’t know.”

“I found out not long ago, didn’t put you up for it or anything.” She said before taking a sip of her tea. “Can think of a few better candidates.”

“Like who?” he countered. 

“Jack actually lives here at the moment.” Rose countered.

“Unfortunately his being part of Torchwood immediately put Jack Harkness out of the running,” Kate said, and Rose shrugged before taking a sip. 

“So what’s it mean, exactly? Being President of the Earth?” Rose asked as the Doctor continued to stare dumbfounded at Kate.

“It means, so long as he’s on this plane, he’s the Commander in Chief of every army on Earth. Every world leader is currently awaiting his instructions.” She turned to the Doctor. “You are the Chief Executive Officer of the human race. Your word is law. Any questions?” She asked.

He blinked but said nothing as the captain announced their impending take-off.

As everyone took their seats, the Doctor said. “Is Missy on board?”

“Yeah,” Rose replied.

“I want to talk to her.” He looked at Rose and held her eye. “And I want you with me.”

~DW~

“How long did you know?” Rose asked as they went to the cargo hold together. When the Doctor glanced at her sheepishly she gave him a pointed glare. Saying his name through the bond, she reiterated. “How long?”

He sighed, “When we landed I felt something. Heard the buzzing of another Time Lord. Problem was, I wouldn’t have put it past me to go exploring what might be the afterlife and forgetting about it. Lots of my eighth life I don’t remember.” He explained, taking her hand. “When Missy put my hand on her chest, I knew what she was, just not who. I feared….”

“That she was Olivia.” Rose nodded. “Sorta did, too. When she said she was a Time Lady? I mean, suppose it coulda been Jen, even though we’ve seen she doesn’t regenerate in the standard sense.”

The Doctor stopped everything about him looking torn, uncertain. He ran a hand over his face and looked at Rose pleadingly. “How’s she still alive?” He asked in a quiet voice. “How is she here? I… I left… _him_ on Gallifrey before breaking the link, leaving them, it, all in a Time Lock again. He saved me. When I left, he was facing Rassilon, raging against what they did to him. Now she’s here? And… I don’t know how, or why.”

Rose squeezed the hand she was holding while cupping his cheek with the other. 

“Doesn’t matter.” She assured as best she could. “Go talk to her, maybe get the answers you need, but at least talk to her.”

“I can’t have the bond open.” He said to Rose pleadingly. “Especially with you so close.”

“It’s alright.” She assured, leaning in and kissing him quickly. “Promise. But I’m not gonna be far.”

“I know.” He said, kissing her quick as well before they resumed their journey into the depths of the plane. 

When they’d gotten there, Osgood was at a desk in the corner, studying something and making notes. Rose stopped short, then frowned, looking at the Doctor in confusion. “Wasn’t she upstairs?”

“I am,” Osgood said with a smirk. “And I’m here.” She looked up at them with a grin, and Rose noted that she was wearing something different as well. A question mark jumper over top a crisp, white shirt with question marks embroidered on the collar.

“The Zygon,” The Doctor said with understanding, a smile pulling at his lips. When Rose frowned, he explained, “When we made the deal with the Zygons hundreds of years and a body ago, the one that took Osgood’s form kept it. It’s to help keep the peace, no one knows who the original is.”

“Clever,” Rose smirked, winking at Osgood who blushed. “So, you mean when I worked with you on the boxes?”

“Some days that was me. Other days it was the other me. We didn’t meet when the invasion happened, I don’t think. I only met your daughter, Jenny.”

“Ah, yes.” She said as the Doctor went to Missy’s side. Before staying nearby, Rose said to Osgood, “best keep all this quiet for now, yeah?”

Osgood nodded, and Rose went to her husband just as Missy’s eyes popped open. She first gazed at Rose, then slowly turned her head to where the Doctor was at her side.

“Why are you still alive?” He asked first, skipping pleasantries.

“Are you surprised I am?” She asked in return, sounding just the slightest bit offended.

“Yes.” He said pointedly. “I destroyed Gallifrey, which is where you were last time I saw you.”

“You did destroy it, but you also haven’t yet.” Missy reasoned easily. 

He frowned. “Meaning?”

“It’s in a time lock, and will be until you destroy it.”

“So, the Doctor hasn’t destroyed Gallifrey yet?” She glanced at him, taking in his sternness, his steadiness. “He destroyed Gallifrey before we met, which was four bodies ago.”

“He’s a Time Lord, dear,” Missy said as if it were obvious. “He could have destroyed it twelve bodies ago, and he still would have yet destroyed it. Forward and backward and all.”

“You broke out of the Time Lock.” The Doctor stated.

“Yes,” Missy replied.

“How? Why?” He demanded.

Missy tilted her head. “Not telling you.” She said softly with a smirk. 

“Mister President,” Ahmed said over the intercom. “We’re ready for you up here.”

The Doctor smirked as there was a click, the microphone on their end being opened up. “Remember all those years when all you wanted to do was to rule the world?” The Doctor asked Missy as he stepped away, inching closer to the microphone. He turned his head toward it and raised his voice. “On my way!” He called, and Ahmed confirmed. The Doctor tossed his hands out to the side. “Piece of cake.” He said before inching toward Osgood.

“You never change,” Missy said, getting Rose’s attention. The Time Lady looked her over. “You never age, you never scar. You are pristine.”

“Want to know my beauty secrets, that it?” Rose asked, crossing her arms and cocking her hip toward Missy.

“Does it look like I need them?” Missy countered confidently.

“No,” Rose smirked, earning an impressed look from the woman beside her. “How much about me do you know?”

“How much about _me_ do you know?” Missy countered. “Or your spouse for that matter?”

Rose narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips.

Missy arched a perfect brow. “More than you want to tell me.” She smirked. “How very interesting.”

“All of time and space,” the Doctor said, and Rose turned to see he was talking to Osgood. “Just something for your bucket list.” He then looked to Rose. “Are you coming with me?”

“Staying here, if you don’t mind,” Rose replied. “Best to keep an eye on her, yeah?” She added with a gesture to Missy who merely sighed and probably rolled her eyes.

The Doctor glanced at his old friend, then looked to Rose with a smirk. “Behave,” He warned.

“Could say the same for you,” She countered.

He leaned in, cupping her cheek and taking hold of her waist as he kissed her tenderly and deeply. 

“Mmph,” Rose mumbled as he pulled back, keeping the whole thing brief. “What was that for?”

“Because I haven’t done it enough,” He said simply, brushing her cheek with his thumb. “Sometimes, I think, I take you for granted.”

“Mister President?” Ahmed said through the intercom.

“Yes, Man Scout, I’m on my way.” The Doctor called and grumbled as he stepped back.

“I said behave,” Rose said as he headed out the cargo hold.

“No, you said you _could_ say the same. I’m the one who said it,” and then he was gone, leaving Rose to shake her head in exasperation.

“You’ve been married a thousand years?” Osgood said from the desk.

“Shows a bit, doesn’t it?” Rose said as she moved to lean against the wall. 

“Actually… yeah,” Osgood said, grinning shyly before she went back to work.

Missy began to hum on occasion, and while Rose may not have had super hearing, she realized Missy’s fidgeting and humming happened to take place about the same time. 

As Rose was pretending not to notice, Osgood took a breath like she was about to ask something and then stopped. Rose watched her a moment, seeing her gearing up to speak again, stopping with a shake of her head, and then bowed over her work again. 

When it happened again, Rose asked, “What’s on your mind?” 

Osgood looked up at her, startled, then blushed. “Did he mean it?” She asked timidly.

Rose frowned, and then remembered the Doctor’s parting words from Osgood.

“Yeah, he meant it,” Rose said with a grin. “In fact,” she snapped her fingers, the TARDIS door opening up. 

“Oh, that’s a nifty trick.” Missy mused, but Rose didn’t pay her any attention.

“Go on in.” She said, gesturing to the doors. 

Osgood didn’t need to be told twice. She abandoned the gadget and darted inside, Rose watching her go with a smile. 

Her bond with the Doctor might have been closed off, but the one she had with the TARDIS remained, and with a thought and the second snap of her fingers, the doors were closed and locked.

“Now that it’s just us and a couple of armed guards, you gonna tell me what you’re up to?” Rose asked Missy.

The Time Lady broke out into giggles. “Whatever do you mean?” She asked.

“Suppose it’s nothing, then.” Rose shrugged, examining her nails.

After a few seconds, Missy started humming again, then started singing softly. 

“Hey, Missy, you’re so fine, you’re so fine you-”

“You know it’s actually ‘Mickey’, yeah?” Rose interrupted, getting a pouty glare from the Time Lady. She shrugged a shoulder, then began to play with a lock of her blonde hair, twirling it around her finger. “Boyfriend I had when I met the Doctor went by Mickey. Used to tease him with it.” 

“A boyfriend before the Doctor?” Missy asked, pretending to be scandalized. 

“Well, I was only nineteen.”

“Robbing the cradle, now.” She quipped, her brogue thickening.

“Yeah,” Rose said with a bit of a smirk. “My mum thought it was bad when she thought he was forty.”

“That’s just a baby.” Missy retorted.

Rose hummed in agreement, walking toward her, crossing her arms again as she stared into those cold blue eyes. She could see something moving behind them, calculating. Rose could feel something like another predator sizing her up, seeing if she was worth the time. 

“You’re plannin’ to kill me, aren’t you?” She asked with a smirk

Missy smirked back. “I was planning on killin’ the other one.” She said with a twitch of her eyebrows and a slight tilt of her head toward the TARDIS.

“Why?” Rose asked.

“Why does one pop a balloon? Because she’s pretty.”

“Yeah, I’ll give you that.” Rose agreed, glancing at the TARDIS, pleased to hear she was being protective of their stowaway. “But I’m much more fun.”

“Why do you think that?” Missy asked.

Rose met her eye, “Well, one. I’m his wife. Know you’re not thrilled about that. The other, well… I’m going to fight back.” 

Missy’s smirk turned into a lovely malicious grin. She reached into her pocket, pulling out a tube of lipstick and reapplying that deep shade of red before she re-pocketed the tube, and withdrew a set of handcuffs, dropping them on the floor.

“Say something nice,” She asked.

“I’m going to hate messing up that hair of yours,” Rose replied.

Within a second, Missy moved toward her, and Rose ducked but miscalculated what Missy had planned to do. She went for the device on Osgood’s workbench, quickly moving her arm out and firing two shots, one on either side of Rose. She glanced over her shoulder at the guards, noting they were no longer there, then launched herself at Missy. She shoved Missy’s arm up, grabbing hold of the hand holding the device, but unable to get it free from her grip.

“Oh you are a feisty one,” Missy laughed before grabbing for Rose’s neck and holding tight. 

For a moment, Rose felt the pain blossom, the choking pressure, before it eased up a little, and Missy brought her closer. 

“Will you turn to dust when I shoot you?” She asked curiously. 

“Dunno,” Rose choked, grabbing at Missy’s hair and yanking her head back. It loosened the grip around her neck enough that Rose was able to kick Missy away from her. She took a deep breath, knowing she didn’t have a lot of time to get herself together before Missy fought back.

As it turned out, she didn’t have any time. 

One hand pointing the device toward Rose, the other fixing her hair and her hat, she stood calmly, clearly knowing she had the upper hand.

“Now, I like you.” She said, putting the hand that had been fixing her hair on her hip now that things were back in place. “And because I like you, I want to give you a choice in how you die. Do you want to get sucked out of the plane? Do you want me to use this on you? See what happens?” She asked, wiggling the device about. 

“Not gonna see if a Cyberman can take me out?” She asked. 

Missy frowned, eyes never leaving Rose but her mind seeming to drift a moment. “Now that sounds like something I might have tried. But no, no I’m going to leave the Cybermen to your darling husband. So? No preference?” 

~DW~

The moment he’d seen on the monitor that Rose was on the ground, Osgood nowhere to be seen, and Missy no longer on the stretch, the Doctor had dashed for the Cargo hold.

As soon as he descended the ladder, he went to Rose, needing to touch her, to feel her there. Hoping, of course, that she would stir when he was near. Crouched down, turning her about, he noted she still hadn’t started breathing.

“Now that was interesting.” Missy’s voice came from behind the TARDIS. When he looked up, she peeked around it, grinning like she was surprising him with a present. “Everyone else I shot turned to nothing, but her? Shot her a couple’o times for fun, just to see if I could get her to disintegrate but nooo. I must say, she’s quite sturdy.”

“Shut up.” He snapped, standing up, not daring quite yet to reach out to feel the hum of Rose’s mind against his.

Missy pouted. “She’s still alive, we both know it.” 

The plane lurched, either because of the Cybermen or the damage they were no doubt doing to it. Alarm bells were going off all around them, items shifting about, even the TARDIS slid a little. 

Missy grinned as she stumbled closer to him and Rose, making it look like she was doing a shuffle.

“Ask me,” Missy said when she was beside him, earnest and hopeful. “Come on, you know you want to. You want to know what my plan is. You’ll be surprised, I’ve got a gift for you.” She sing-songed. “Think of it as a wedding present. You know, I’ve been up and down your timeline trying to find the perfect place for it, meeting all those silly people who died to keep you alive before that one came along and took on the job full time.” 

“Why?” He asked, the phone on his TARDIS beginning to ring.

Missy didn’t answer him. “Aren’t you going to get that?” She asked innocently. When he continued to ignore her, she huffed. “Now, come on. Answer it. You know it’s that whiny little friend of yours. ‘Help me, Doctor. Help me, help me.’ Ugh, dunno why you keep picking up pets when you’ve got yourself something like her at home.” Missy said, gesturing to Rose still unconscious on the floor. “Still, thought this pet might be a bit fun, but no. She’s not the sort that can be trained, can she? That one won’t walk the Earth for you.”

“I don’t train them,” he snapped, as he went for the outer phone. He paused as he got there, a thought occurring to him. “You were the one who gave her our number.”

“Computer helpline, love. That’s the one, best helpline in the universe.” Missy said in an English accent grinning. “The phone’s ringing, Doctor.” She said in her normal voice. “You might not train them, but they train you. And right now, your chain is being yanked.”

He opened the compartment where the phone was hidden and answered it.

“Doctor?” Clara asked, her voice heavy with grief and tears. “With Danny.”

His hearts ached for her. “Danny’s dead, Clara.” He said, fearing what would come next. Jack had told him and Rose a story, once. About what had happened to Ianto’s partner before him. 

“Not yet,” She sniffed over the line. “Not quite, but he wants to be.”

“Clara,” He sighed, hearing Danny sob in the background. The Doctor looked at Rose, her body still lying prone, Missy watching him instead of the potential weapon at her back. 

“He’s a Cyberman,” Clara confirmed his suspicions. “Doctor, he’s a Cyberman, and he’s crying. He feels it.” She sniffed again, and the Doctor pressed his head to the exterior of the TARDIS. “There’s ah… in his chest, he says it’s an inhibitor. It can delete emotion or something.”

“I know what it does,” He confirmed, noting Rose’s fingers twitching slightly. “If you turn it on, he’ll become a Cyberman.” The plane lurched, and he grabbed on to the handles of the TARDIS< expecting the doors to open, and finding the Old Girl was keeping her doors firmly short. 

“He’s one already,” Clara replied, oblivious to what was happening on the Doctor’s end of the call.

“Not yet.” He replied, glancing at Rose, noting lips twitching into a grimace as she slid a bit across the floor. 

“TARDIS can home in on this call, right?” Clara asked. “I need your help. I can’t… I can’t do this alone.” She admitted. “So help me or leave me alone.”

He wanted to tell her he’d be there, to help however he could, if he could, one way or the other. But Missy was watching, and watching with a knowing smile on her face. 

Instead, he hung up, turning to face his former friend. 

Rose lifted a hand to her head behind Missy, mercifully keeping quiet. 

“Are you going to chase after your pet?” Missy asked.

Just as the Doctor raised his chin, Kate stumbled down the ladder in a panic. “Doctor, the Cybermen are in, the plane’s going down!” She informed him, looking from him to Missy, to Rose. 

“Oh, great, it’s the daughter one,” Missy said conversationally. “Do you like her? I like her.” She said before pressing something on her wrist, causing the plane to lurch. He’d only had enough time to grab on to one of the straps hanging from the ceiling before the loading door was taken off the plane. Kate was sucked out even before he could reach for her.

“Why did you do that?” He shouted at Missy as she stumbled toward him and grabbed on to the strap Kate had been within reach of. 

“Why do I do anything?” Missy asked. “I’m-”

She was abruptly cut off by Rose throwing herself bodily against her and launching them both out the plane.

With effort, the Doctor started to pull himself toward the TARDIS, startling when the doors were thrown open, and Osgood reached out, extending her arm. 

“Take my hand,” She called a bit unnecessarily.

He didn’t quite care, grabbing hold of Osgood and allowing her to help him inside the TARDIS. 

“How are you in here?” he asked as he darted to the console, immediately turning knobs and pushing buttons, mentally asking the Old Girl to help him out.

“Your wife sent me in here,” Osgood explained as she came to join him but kept out of his way. It seemed she must have known Missy would try and kill me.”

“Rose has the instincts of a wolf.”

“Because of her alias, the Bad Wolf?”

“Something like that.” He said as the TARDIS engines began to grind and groan.

On the floor, Rose began to appear, her hair and clothes fluttering upwards against an unfelt wind. She was faint at first, blinking in and out before solidifying. Once fully formed, gravity took over and her hair and clothes righted themselves, and she fell the inch or so to the floor the TARDIS had put as a buffer.

He moved around the console to help her to her feet.

“Jumping out of planes, now?” He asked as he got her to her feet.

“A Cyberman got Kate,” Rose said a bit breathless, fixing her clothes and brushing her hair away from her face. “She seemed unconscious but… it looked like it wasn’t going to hurt her. Was sorta cradling her.”

He frowned, “We’ll have to deal with that after.” He said, darting back to the controls. “Right now, we need to help Clara.”

~DW~  
  


When the TARDIS landed, they found themselves in a graveyard. All around them, Cybermen were staggering about like they hadn’t figured out how to walk yet, all but the one Clara stood in front of.

They moved toward her, their pace quick but not rushed, worried that any sudden movement would draw too much attention, and a previously staggering Cyberman will suddenly become fully functioning.

“Oh, Danny,” Rose said as she got a good look at the Cyberman Clara had been touching. Danny looked up, met Rose’s eyes, and she knew the pain he felt deep in her bones. “Danny, I’m so sorry.”

Danny looked down at Clara and nodded.

“Can you help me?” Clara asked, backing up to allow the Doctor to examine Danny.

“PE,” He mumbled to himself as he circled Danny. “Oh, PE, PE.”

“Sir,” Danny said with great sarcasm as the Doctor stopped in front of him.

“How did this happen?” Rose asked gently, coming to stand between her husband and Clara.

Danny met her gaze. “I didn’t… I was supposed to delete my emotions. Who I was. I couldn’t.” He looked at Clara, “No matter how much it hurt.”

“Pain is a gift.” The Doctor said. “Without the capacity for pain, we can’t feel the hurt we inflict.”

Danny turned to him then. “Are you telling me, seriously, for real, that you can?” He asked in disbelief.

“Of course I can,” The Doctor replied honestly. 

“Then shame on you, Doctor.” Danny scolded.

“Yes, oh yes,” He nodded. “And I’m trying, very hard, to remember that part of myself. It got lost, for a while. But I was reminded.” He assured as thunder rumbled overhead, and the clouds above grew darker and larger. “Danny, I need you to tell me what are the clouds going to do? What is the plan?” The Doctor asked.

“How would I know?” He asked.

“You’re part of a hive mind, now. Presumably, that’s how you found Clara.” The Doctor reasoned. “Just look.”

Danny looked away a moment, then back at the Doctor. “I can’t see much.” He replied.

“Because you’re not part of the hive,” Rose realized, glancing around at the unstable Cybermen, making the connection. When the Doctor looked at her with a frown, she explained. “He didn’t delete his emotions, he’s still got’em, yeah? Part of a hive mind, a hive mind of a race that purposely got rid of ‘em. Can’t risk him bringing them back to the lot.”

The Doctor looked pained. “If we turn on the inhibitor, he’ll become like them. He’ll go after you, he’ll go after Clara.”

“I will not harm her,” Danny said with certainty.

The Doctor looked at Clara. “Did you tell him?” He asked gently.

Clara sniffed and shook her head. 

The Doctor nodded, reaching in his pocket and taking out his screwdriver. He tapped it against his opposite hand, then looked to Rose, meeting her eye.

She could see the turmoil in there, the fear that the risk he was taking was too great. Rose nodded, assuring him of whatever he hoped to see while leaving their bond closed.

The Doctor closed his eyes and turned away from Danny, taking a few steps back. 

“Clara,” He said, his voice clear of fear and panic. “I said we would give you a chance to say goodbye. This is it. Two minutes.” He walked a few steps further away, and while Rose wanted to go to him, she stayed near Clara, just in case things went very wrong when those two minutes were up.

Clara sniffed and met Danny’s eyes. “I wasn’t very good at it, but I did love you.” She swore to him.

Danny took the unneeded breath, and replied, I love you, too.”

“I’m never going to say that again,” Clara promised. “Not like this.”

“Me neither.” Danny joked sadly.

“I’m…,” Clara stopped, pausing, her lips quivering. “Name for a boy and a name for a girl.” She said, squaring her shoulders.

Danny’s eyes widened in recognition. “Not Rupert.” He said with a chuckle. “Maybe Elizabeth for a girl.”

Clara nodded. “I’m so sorry.”

“Me too.

“Goodbye, Danny,” Clara said.

Danny smiled, “Goodbye, Clara.” He said with so much love that Rose teared up.

There was the whir of the screwdriver and looked back a moment to see the Doctor holding the screwdriver out behind him, his back turned and his head bowed.

She looked back at Danny, watching the smile fall and his face become flat and emotionless.

She’d never seen a Cyberman without its full helmet and found it as unsettling as the Toclafane were. But that was the thing, while Danny had seemed to lose emotion, he still didn’t seem dead. Much like the Toclafane, there seemed to be an understanding there, a consciousness. 

Clara threw her arms around Danny, leaning resting her head on his chest, weeping quietly for the man she’d lost, but Danny didn’t more. He didn’t attack, he didn’t flinch, he did nothing.

“Danny?” The Doctor said, but Rose didn’t dare look away to see her husband come closer. “Danny, if you can hear me if you’re still there, what are the clouds going to do?” The Doctor asked as he came into Rose’s line of vision, walking straight up to the Cyberman.

“The rain will fall again,” Danny explained in a monotone voice. “All humanity will die.”

“And rise as Cybermen.” The Doctor understood.

“Correct,” Danny replied.

“How do we stop it?” The Doctor asked.

“We cannot be stopped.” He said with certainty.

A strange sort of whooshing sound came from overhead, and Rose looked up and snorted despite the situation at Missy floating down to the ground with an Umbrella.

“Oh, that was brilliant.” She cheered as she landed. “Oh, those two could put your little love story to shame, couldn’t they?” Missy brushed at her dress then pouted at Clara. “Oh, you poor thing, you must feel like death. Let me pop away the pain.” She said, licking her finger as she pulled the stupid little device thing from her pockets.

Without hesitation, the Doctor stormed over to Missy and snatched the device away from her.

“Don’t you dare!” He said, tossing it toward Rose.

She caught it deftly, pulling her own sonic from her pocket and disabling the damned thing.

“Oh, sorry,” Missy said to the Doctor as Rose got to work. “Just getting a bit carried away, is all. Oh, stop looking so cross-pants. I’m here to give you a gift, can you at least try and be excited?” Missy said with false shyness.

The Doctor frowned as Rose pocketed the now disabled device. 

“What gift?”He asked Missy, baffled.

Missy raised her right wrist to her mouth. “Cyberdears,” She said, and all the Cybermen in the graveyard came to attention. 

All, except, for one.

Rose watched as Missy got the Cybermen to follow a typical, airline safety demonstration, all except the one once known as Danny Pink. He stayed stoic, unmoving, eyes ahead and ignoring the instruction as Clara clung to him.

Rose turned about, seeing only one other Cyberman not doing so, but she couldn’t understand why. Maybe it was another case of an undeleted personality, of the emotions remaining intact, but she couldn’t be sure and wasn’t about to leave to ask.

Instead, she stared at her husband as he looked around as well, banging on the mental walls of their bond, desperate for him to understand she needed to tell him something.

He met her eye, and she thought he was about to open the bond to her, but then he turned to Missy, giving her his attention.

“Everyone who ever lived,” Missy told him as the Cybermen came to a resting stance.”Man, woman, and child is now at my command. An indestructible arm to rage across the universe. The more they kill, the more the recruit.” She said looking about, waving her arm around. “Happy birthday,” She said proudly. When the Doctor didn’t react, she looked to Rose. “Oh, don’t tell me you both forgot. Really it’s a good thing _someone_ remembers these things.” She then extended her arms, moving to the Doctor, taking his right arm and moving the something from hers to his while singing, “Happy birthday Mister President.”

“You did this for him?” Rose said, pointing a finger and waving it about to indicate the graveyard.

“Well, for both of you, really. I did say earlier it was a wedding present, but I suppose the anniversary’s passed, hasn’t it? I’m not cross I didn’t get an invite, but still, one of his oldest friends, and I’m sure all your family was there.” 

Rose ignored her, “Why?”

“Why what, dear?” Missy asked, turning more toward Rose, gliding toward her a few inches. 

“Why an army, why Cybermen?”

“Well, I couldn’t get you a Dalek one, now, could I?” When Rose didn’t crack a grin, Missy rolled her eyes. “Why not an army, hmm? Give a good man firepower, and he’ll never run out of people to kill. The Doctor of War, that’s what they whispered about him on Gallifrey. He wields weapons only whispered about in legends. The Moment, the Hybrid, now let's add the Cybermen to that roster, shall we?”

“I don’t want an army.” The Doctor said firmly.

“But you do!” Missy said excitedly, turning back to him and standing in front of him. “You married a one-woman army, didn’t ya? You have all these little pets that do as they’re told, take orders, sacrifice themselves for you.”

“Why are you doing this?” He asked her, flinging his arms about, and -Rose was pretty sure- ripping off whatever Missy put on him in the process.

Missy’s shoulders dropped a bit. “Because I need you to see we’re not so different. I need my friend back.” After a moment, when the Doctor remained unmoved, she said. “Every battle, every war, every invasion. From now on, you decide the outcome.” The Doctor looked down at his hands, shifting something around that looked like a bracelet. 

Missy smiled.

“What’s the matter, Mister President? Don’t you trust yourself?”

He looked down at the bracelet again, then toward Rose. He quickly looked away to where Danny and Clara were, then up at the clouds overhead. He moved the bracelet about in his hands, time crawling by slowly, seconds ticking away, then whipped his head back in Missy’s direction.

“Thank you.” He said sincerely, smiling at Missy. “Thank you so much. I really didn’t know, I wasn’t sure.” He then crossed the distance between him and Rose, reaching up, cupping the back of her head, smiling so wide and so bright, that Rose almost didn’t recognize him. “I lost sight,” he said to her. “It happens sometimes. But now?” He turned to Missy, dropping his hand to hold Rose’s. “I’m not a good man.” He said with certainty, his smile still wide and bright and joyful. “I am not a bad man. I am not a hero, and I’m definitely not a president. Do you know what I am?” He asked, and Missy shook her head slightly. “I am an idiot.”

“Sometimes, yeah.” Rose agreed as Missy looked at him fondly.

“Oh, love, more than sometimes.” He said affectionately, glancing at her before looking to Missy. “I’ve always been an idiot with a box and a screwdriver. I got lucky along the way and found a partner who will put up with me. I found her among the people I have always watched over, while passing through, helping out where I could. Learning from them. I found her, I found love. You know why love is important?” He asked Missy who quirked an eyebrow. “Because love is not an emotion, love is a promise.” He said, pointing behind him where there was a mechanical whir. Rose looked over her shoulder, ready to pounce and pull Clara away, but her heart swelled at seeing Danny had put his arm around her, holding her to him even as he didn’t look at her. “And he will never hurt her.” The Doctor said, probably to Missy, before calling for Danny and tossing the bracelet over his shoulder, his unseen aim perfect as it landed exactly where Danny lifted his free hand.

“No,” Missy said, shaking her head. “That’s wrong, that’s impossible.”

Danny gently pushed Clara away before turning to Missy, walking around the Doctor and Rose as he put on the bracelet the Doctor had thrown to him.

“The rain will not fall,” Danny assured.

“Oh? Why won’t it?” Missy asked dubiously.

“The clouds will burn,” Danny told her. 

“And who will burn them?” Missy asked.

“I will burn them.” 

“How?”

“I will burn,” Danny stated with confidence.

“One burning Cyberman is hardly going to save the planet.” Missy scoffed.

Danny leaned in, and while Rose couldn’t see his face, and wasn’t sure he could express anything anyway, his tone made her picture a cheeky sort of grin as he stage whispered, “correct.”

He turned, getting the attention of the Cybermen with an order, and Rose watched in awe as they followed in line. Danny spoke with all the heart and fire of a man still living, a man untouched by the Cybernetics covering his body, and she watched as Clara stared at him in awe. In love. 

When Danny’s speech ended, he turned to Clara one last time.

“You will sleep safe tonight.” He promised.

Then he, and every other Cyberman pounded their chest and stomped their foot, the jets on their feet igniting as they took to the sky above, entering the cloud.

One by one, each of them combusted, the sky overhead burning bright orange. The clouds dissipated, burning off, until all that was left overhead was clear blue skies.

“There it goes,” Rose said, not feeling as relieved as she should.

“Yes.” The Doctor said, “Totally burnt to nothing,” He turned to Missy. “Sorry.”

She looked at him, devastated. “Not _nearly_ as sorry as I am.”

Missy walked toward them, looking first to the Doctor, and then to Rose. She withdrew something from her pockets: a gold disc with circular Gallifreyan inscribed on it. She took Rose’s hands and placed the disc in it.

The Doctor frowned. “A confession dial?”

“I’m afraid so,” Missy said. 

“Yours?” 

“ _Yours_ ,” She replied.

“I don’t understand,” Rose said, looking between them. “What’s a confession dial?”

“It’s supposed to be the last will and testament of a Time Lord,” Missy said, sliding her hand up Rose’s arm. “But I’m afraid that’s not entirely the truth. Like so much of what comes from Gallifrey.”

There was a click, and Rose looked down at her right arm, seeing a silver bracelet clamped onto it. 

“What?” She asked, the Doctor looking over as well, then distracted as Missy clamped one on him as well. Rose noted the symbols on the bracelets were different, and when she looked at Missy there was a genuine glisten of tears and regret in her eyes.

“I tried to give you an army so you could stop this. But, I suppose, there are some things that can’t be changed.” 

“What are you doing?” The Doctor asked, and Missy looked at him.

“You’re the Doctor of War, and you’re destined to have Gallifrey burn.” She replied. “Rassilon wants you stopped. But he knows he can’t touch you.” She then looked pointedly at Rose. “Not while the Hybrid’s around.”

“I’m sorry, while the what?”Rose demanded as her bracelet began to make a noise, and her vision became fogged with green and pinks until it overwhelmed her.

Everything about her body felt compressed, crushed. Her ears rang and her head felt as though it would implode. She felt the Doctor fade from her both physically and through their bond. It seemed as though there was the absolute barest string tethering them together, thin and worn and ready to snap.

When her sense came back to her, she was in a small room. 

There was a bed, a chair, a table. There was a rectangular box that looked no bigger than the TARDIS would from the outside, a plain brown with a simple silver handle. It matched the table, and the frames of the bed and the chair that were upholstered in a red.

The walls of the room, when she was able to focus, seemed to be made of golden light. She could sense she was being observed, though she couldn’t see by who.

Something was off, though. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but there was a sound, or maybe a lack of a sound, that made her unsettled. She paced around the small space, trying to figure it out, wondering if maybe it was something to do with the walls.

She approached the box, pulled on the handle, and was pleased and surprised to see a small washroom inside. Above the mirror over the sink was a Gallifreyan symbol, one she couldn’t even begin to decipher.

Maybe that was the missing sound, the TARDIS would be back on Earth, out of reach, out of range to feel the hum of her against Rose’s mind.

She closed the door to the washroom, then moved to sit on the chair.

She then stopped, dropping to her knees as agony burned through her from her head to her toes in searing heat. It reminded her, vaguely, of the mummy on the Orient Express. Rose tried to breathe, tried to take great, gulps of air, but found she couldn’t. 

Or, maybe, didn’t need to.

Just as abruptly as it started, it stopped. 

Rose should have panted but found it wasn’t needed. 

Rose should have felt her heart racing, hear it pounding in her ears, but it was silent. 

She put her hand over her chest and felt nothing there.

“Well.” Someone said from the other side of the light wall. “It seems destroying the Hybrid isn’t going to be as simple as we thought.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is another fic coming, that I promise. It might not show up for a few days, or a week, but there is another fic coming.

**Author's Note:**

> I have another one, maybe two over all stories half-planned for this verse after this one. The next update on this may not come quickly, as I'm trying something new where I'll be working on multiple (not all published) fics at once. Trying to get my WIP folder under control. I didn't put a chapter count because as of now I'm not sure if there will be one or two more chapters.  
> Until next time


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